Falling in Love with a Dying Girl
by reader713
Summary: Kirihara is visiting Yukimura when he enters the wrong room. During that one visit he falls in love. But she's already in love. Will he ever confess? One-sided KiriharaxSakuno. RyomaxSakuno. Character death. Somewhat happy ending.


Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis!

The first time he met her she laughed.

"Yukimura-buchou, I'm sorry I'm la-…" Kirihara trailed off as he looked around the room, confused "ah, wrong room?"

The girl was staring at him wide-eyed. She began to giggle at his sheepish expression.

"I guess" she said, smiling.

"Heh heh" Kirihara backed up, glanced at the room number and looked back at the paper in his hand "I'm an idiot" he sighed heavily "the room number is 156 not 739. Fuku-buchou's gonna kill me for being late."

"Well, you could send him to me. I'll tell him you ran into the wrong room" she offered, smoothing down the bed-sheet.

"Nah, he'll make me run laps, it's not too bad" Akaya shrugged "besides, buchou is probably talking about training with Yanagi-sempai and fuku-buchou. It's boring."

"You play sports?" she asked, eyeing him.

"Yep, I'm on the tennis team at Rikkai Dai!"

"Oh" she clapped her hands eagerly "I used to play tennis!"

"Really? I'm Kirihara Akaya" he introduced, taking a seat.

She smiled at him brightly "I'm Ryuuzaki Sakuno, nice to meet you Kirihara-kun."

He felt something flutter in his chest.

When he finally did head down to see buchou, he didn't say why he was really, really late.

He began to visit her. First, it was only when he was visiting buchou. Initially he'd visit her before, but then, because he ended up late, he started visiting her after seeing his captain. Then, he started visiting her without seeing buchou.

He learned that she was dying two months after that first meeting.

He'd run into her friend Tomoka, who had been visiting when he'd stopped by to give her a hurried 'hello' before running downstairs to see Yukimura. Sakuno had introduced them.

He ran into Tomoka crying on the stairwell, sitting at the top of the stairs (he took them always so that he could fool himself into believing that he was training while visiting her).

Sakuno was dying, unlikely to last more than a year.

Somehow, Sakuno knew immediately when he entered that he knew.

"So you know" she commented, smiling at him.

"Ah, yeah."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you" she shrugged "it was…nice, pretending to be normal. I…telling…" she sighed heavily "my boyfriend doesn't know" she offered "only Tomoka-chan knows. I'll understand if you want to leave" she said.

He stayed, prolonging his visit longer than usual.

She had a boyfriend, he'd known ever since she'd admitted it during his second visit. His name was Ryoma, they'd been dating since they were 14, but their first date was when they were 12. Supposedly Ryoma was away for some reason.

She loved him a lot.

He called from time to time, but she called him more.

Akaya could always tell when he'd called her. She would be smiling brightly, eyes shining with love.

Akaya fell in love with her the day that he heard her on the phone, heard her say "goodbye" and "I love you" and waited a while longer before entering and realized why she looked that way.

She was always smiling, he'd noted. He liked that, he liked her smiles.

He'd been visiting her for four months. He could tell that she was getting worse. He could always tell when she was on pain-relieving drugs, her eyes slightly hazy, and her cough sounded worse.

But she'd smiled, as she always did when he entered.

He's in love with her.

Today was a bad day. She was coughing, clutching her phone in one hand. Her eyes are slightly gazed.

He's leaving, heading to the stairs, when he slams into him.

The other male mutters a 'sorry', not even looking at him before brushing by him.

Akaya stares after him, and feels worried.

What…?

He follows as the other male runs into Sakuno's room.

"You…idiot! You stupid…clumsy girl with too-long pigtails!" he hears the male yell "why…didn't you tell me?"

He peaks in. Sakuno is lying on her bed; the male draped over her, clutching her tightly, his hands white due to his grip on her shoulders.

"I would have come" he muttered "why didn't you tell me?"

"You…you wanted to win" her voice was broken "you…wanted to beat your dad."

"I could have beaten him even if I'd competed next year" he snapped "I would have stayed with you."

"But…you wanted to do it…!" she protested.

"Not more than being with you" he retorted "next year, the year after, I've already beaten my father. This…being with you…I had to learn from coach that the reason you weren't there to welcome me back was because you were in the hospital!"

"I'm sorry Ryoma-kun" her voice broke "I'm sorry, I…!"

She was crying.

Akaya felt something break inside him. She never cried when he was there.

The male, Ryoma, was holding her.

"I would have been here" he whispered "stupid…foolish girl…with hair too long…"

"My hair is not too long" she grumbled "mou, Ryoma-kun."

Akaya stares at them, seeing the small ringbox on the ground where it had fallen from the other man's bag when he dropped it.

"I wanted to watch you" she was crying "I…I didn't…I thought…I don't want to die Ryoma-kun" she was crying "I wanted you with me but I didn't want to be selfish. I love you Ryoma-kun!"

"I love you too" he mumbled, wiping away her tears.

Akaya left.

Yukimura got better. Akaya didn't visit her again.

"Oh, look at all the flowers" Yukimura commented, gazing at the set-up "did something happen?" he asked a nearby nurse.

"Oh, that" the nurse smiled "one of the patients, Ryuuzaki-chan, her boyfriend proposed, they got married about an hour ago. It's terribly romantic" she gushed.

Akaya didn't say anything.

When he asked, a year later, he learned that Sakuno had died two weeks after the wedding. The nurses remembered, because her boyfriend, then her husband, had refused to leave her side after he'd returned. He had checked her out to stay outside the hospital for ten days, employing a number of nurses to care for her, but she had been brought back into the hospital eleven days after leaving. She fell into a coma a day later, and died in her sleep after two days without waking up. Her husband stayed by her side the entire time.

Akaya visited her grave. It was early enough that no one else was there. Sakuno's grave had already been visited. It had a bouquet of flowers.

_Sakuno Ryuuzaki Echizen_

_Loyal_

_Beloved_

_A Good Friend_

_Loving Granddaughter_

_Wife_

_We Shall Miss Her._

_I Love You._

_Always._

As he watched, a figure headed over to the grave, crouching down to talk to her.

He turned around and walked away; throwing the small bouquet he'd bought in the trash.

He didn't return.

Akaya stopped playing tennis apart from when he met up with his old team. He still liked it, but whenever he played or talked about tennis he remembered Sakuno's smiles as they would talk about the sport.

After a while, he forgot about Sakuno, or least he did enough that he was no longer haunted by her memory.

He started dating a girl named An, who he had run into while doing solo tennis training, in preparation for his team's upcoming reunion.

She played tennis, was rather good at it, actually.

"Oh, Akaya, the 'Princess' is on" she said, turning up the volume of the TV.

"The Princess?"

"Yeah, she's called 'Princess of Tennis' for some reason" An said "her dad was called the 'Prince' when he was her age."

Akaya stared at the TV. The girl on the screen was rather similar.

She had brown hair tied into pigtails, and a wide smile on her face, a baseball cap perched crookedly on her head.

"_How do you feel about your victory?"_ someone asked her.

"_Really excited!"_

"_So, any particular reason why you waited until now to start competing? According to rumor you were good enough to start two years ago. And why move to Japan?"_

"_Yeah_" she smiled wryly_ "it's a family tradition. My dad said that he met my mom when he was 12 soon after he came to Japan. I hope to be as lucky!" _she bounced on the balls of her feet, spotting someone off screen_ "Ryuu-nii! Wait for me! Sorry, I have to go!"_ she ran off.

"It's really romantic" An gushed "supposedly her father adopted her and her brother after his wife died. He still wears the wedding ring."

"So, what's her name?" Akaya asked.

"Echizen Sakura, her brother is named Ryuu."

Akaya remembered that grave with the flowers.

It had been years, but it was still the same.

He could see her grave, recognizing it after so long.

Standing in front of the grave stone was the familiar figure, a tennis racket strapped to his back, a flower bouquet at his feet.

For the first time, Akaya didn't hurt as he watched. Soon, the other figure walked away.

Akaya walked to the grave, standing in front of it.

He read the inscription again and smiled.

"Hey, Sakuno-chan" he said "I loved you" he then turned and walked away.

He passed by a trio on his way to the exit.

"Made made dane" the oldest member grumbled.

"Well, I know that, geez, you always say that dad. And stop trying to take my hat Ryuu-nii! Anyways, I won! I can't wait to tell okaa-chan!" she ran ahead.

Akaya was at the entrance when he turned for one last look.

Sakura was kneeling in front of the grave.

"Guess what okaa-chan! I won!" she gushed "and unlike otou-san I didn't get lost getting there!"

"Only because your mother gave me the wrong directions" Ryoma Echizen grumbled "tch, made made dane."

Akaya smiled and turned around to walk away.

That night, when he entered his apartment, he grinned when An turned to smile at him.

One of his hands crept into his pocket to clutch the small box inside.

For the first time in a while, he could remember Sakuno smiling.


End file.
